Peter Alexander came to polyester resin as a sculptural material through surfing, intrigued by the translucent, moldable nature of the liquid resin he used to glaze and repair his surfboard. He wanted viewers to become immersed in his sculptures, which he felt required a perfectly polished finish; any scratches or blemishes would be distracting. While Alexander’s smaller wedges (including the pink one in this exhibition) are colored uniformly, his taller wedges, such as this untitled 1968 work, are most highly colored at the bottom, fading to a mere hint of coloration at the razor-thin top edge. This was inspired by Alexander’s experience of looking down on the coastline from an airplane, seeing how the color of the water appeared to lighten as the plane approached the shore.

Exhibition label: Light, Space, Surface: Works from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2021, Carol S. Eliel.